Case Study | Justice: Elkhart County Courthouse New Construction

For more than two decades, the Elkhart County Justice System operated courts out of two facilities, one located in the County Seat of Goshen, Indiana, and the other in its biggest city, Elkhart. Both facilities were antiquated and unable to adapt to a post-COVID Courts operation, so County Commissioners chose the Progressive Design-Build Project Delivery Method for a single team to develop and validate space and operational programming, plus design and construct of a new, consolidated facility.

The project team helped Elkhart County define operational consolidation for its two facilities. The resulting operational program was converted into a space program suitable for a post-COVID, technologically advanced Courts design incorporating state-of-the-art features from around the U.S. Real-time budgeting & estimating coordinated between the Build and Design teams to constantly monitor and control project costs during a volatile construction market. The final Courthouse construction cost was $73,000,000. The imposing building is a four-story brick and stone structure of 173,000 square feet, which commands the landscape with its distinctive civic presence. Each of the upper three floors are dedicated to one court type—Civil, Criminal, and Family—providing an intuitive, efficient floor plate. Master planning allows for future expansion and development on the site for solutions up to 100 years.